It’s difficult to imagine in our politics-driven town, but most people get a little spoon-fed history from their local school system, in between study hall and physical education, and then rarely ponder again how government works.

But not if Academy Award-winner Richard Dreyfuss has anything to say about it.

While most Hollywood types split town after Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association dinner, Dreyfuss will take his interest in the political system into the week. He will appear at the Library of Congress on Tuesday for Law Day 2012 festivities, and part of his time there will include a discussion about the Dreyfuss Initiative, a nonprofit he founded in 2010 to spark interest in civics education.

The group’s curriculum sounds like a Zen-biblical mash-up with a dash of Bill and Ted thrown in for theatricality:

“Develop Pre-Partisan tools of civic expertise for all: reason, logic, critical analysis, clarity of thought, and the narrative tale of achieving the path to enlightenment, which is a story of blood and darkness and a rare victory of light, and that our Constitution and Declaration of Independence is the first actualization of that victory.

“We will teach The Narrative Tale of the attainment of The Enlightenment, that moment when Reason triumphed over Faith, and Science over Hope and Fear. Know that the darkness never dies, it just waits.”

According to the Library of Congress’ blog, “Law Day is a national day to celebrate the rule of law and its contributions to the freedoms that Americans enjoy.” It’s hard to think of a more bracing tonic for the past week’s WHCA festivities than something like this.